Things aren’t looking good for the Boston Red Sox right now as they are behind in the ALCS. After pulling out a low scoring victory in game one, the Red Sox have now lost games two and three and find themselves down 2-1 in the series to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Sunday night it was a 9-8 loss in and on Monday it was a 9-1 blowout loss. It was very suprising to see the Sox get blown out like that a home in the playoffs. Starting pitcher Jon Lester was pretty bad as he gave up two home runs in 5 2/3 innings. Lester was allowed five runs to score on eight hits while striking out seven. Paul Byrd pitched the final 3 1/3 innings but he also served up two home runs. All but one of the Rays runs came via the home run ball.

As for the Sox offense, they had seven hits but could never get a big hit or two to keep a rally going. Their one run came in the seventh inning when Jacoby Ellsbury hit a rbi sac fly to right field to score Jason Varitek. David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis combined to go 0-8 and they need to turn things around on Tuesday if they want to stay in this series.

Tim Wakefield will get the start for the Sox as they look to even up the series at two games each.

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The Boston Red Sox got off to the start they wanted to in the ALCS as they took game one down in Tampa by the score of 2-0. The sox got out of jams in the game and limited the Rays to only four hits as they went up 1-0 in the best of seven series.

Dice K was great as he pitched seven innings and only gave up four hits to the Rays. Dice K struck out nine batters but also walked four. The walks were the only reason that the Rays were really threatning to score any runs but then Matsusaka worked out of the jams without allowing any runs to score. K was actually throwing a no hitter until the seventh inning when Carl Crawford broke up the no-no.

Jonathan Papelbon closed out the game by pretty much throwing fastballs and recorded the save. Papelbon struck out two of the three batters that he faced.

There wasn’t much offense for the Red Sox as they faced off against James Shields. They were only able to come up with two runs on seven hits in the game. Jed Lowrie got the scoring started in the fifth inning with a rbi sac fly that scored Jason Bay. Kevin Youkilis then added the second and final run in the seventh inning when he doubled and plated Dustin Pedroia.

It could be another low scoring game on Saturday as the Red Sox will send Josh Beckett to the mound against the Rays and Scott Kazmir. Hopefully the Sox can get to Kazmir early and take the pressure off Beckett but we will have to see.

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In a big game for the Boston Red Sox, they didn’t get the performance that they were hoping for. Starting pitcher Josh Beckett gave up four runs in six innings and the Red Sox lost to the Cleveland Indians by the score of 4-3. I would have expected that Beckett would have thrown a better game in such a tight playoff race.

Instead Beckett was charged with seven hits and four runs in six innings. He is now 12-10 on the season. Beckett did strike out seven batters but little singles and a walk with the bases loaded hurt him in the game.

Kevin Youkilis led the sox at the plate with two two-run doubles to finish with two rbi. David Ortiz added a solo home run as well. It’s too bad that no one else in the sox lineup contributed to score any more runs when the team could have really used them.

With the Rays winning on Monday night, the Red Sox now find themselves 2.5 games out of first place with six games left to play.

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What a great game for the Boston Red Sox on Monday night as they opened up a three game series down in Tampa against the Tampa Bay Rays. The Red Sox hammered the Rays for a 13-5 win and they are now tied with the Rays for the division lead.

The sox offense got right at things in the the first inning as they scored four runs in the first inning and then knocked out Rays starting pitcher Scott Kazmir after only three innings. David Ortiz had four rbi while Kevin Youkilis finished the game with three rbi. Jason Varitek added two rbi and four others had one rbi each. Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Cash, and Jason Bay all finished with one rbi. In total, the sox hit 6 home runs off the Rays pitchers.

Daisuke Matsuzaka got the start for the Red Sox but only pitched five innings. His five innings of action was enough to get the win and improve his record to 17-2 however. Dice-K had given up three hits and one run while striking out seven.

Chris Smith pitched the next two innings and gave up four hits, four runs, and two home runs. Not a good outing for Smith, it was a good thing that the Sox had scored so many runs that the runs Smith gave up really didn’t matter.

The Red Sox will now try to take the division lead on Tuesday night as they face off against the Rays once again.

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It was a bad 14th inning for Red Sox relief pitcher Mike Timlin on Wendesday night. Timlin gave up a three run home run to Carlos Pena and the Tampa Bay Rays went onto beat the Red Sox 4-2 and extend their lead in the division to 2.5 games.

Timlin of course took the loss and it was too bad because the Red Sox pitching staff was pretty good the rest of the night. Josh Beckett tossed six innings while allowing six hits and one run. Beckett struck out seven Rays batters but ended up with a no decision due to the lack of run support from the offense.

Dustin Pedroia had the first rbi for the sox in the third inning when he doubled to left field and Jed Lowrie scored. The sox would not score again until the bottom of the 14th inning when they loaded the bases but were only able to score one run. Kevin Youkilis hit a rbi sac fly to right field for that rbi.

So now the Red Sox will be off on Thursday and then start up a weekend series with the Toronto Blue Jays who have been playing some awesome baseball lately. It will be a tough series that is for sure.

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The Boston Red Sox picked up a huge win on Monday night against the visiting Tampa Bay Rays. The Red Sox scored three quick runs in the first inning and then held off the Rays the final eight innings to pick up the 3-0 victory. Exactly the way the sox were wanting to start off the three game series with the Rays. The sox are now only a half game beind the Rays in the division!

Big papi David Ortiz started things off with an rbi double to score Mark Kotsay to make the score 1-0. Ortiz then came around to score on a rbi single to shallow center by Kevin Youkilis. Youkilis was tagged out on the play when he tried advancing to second base on the play. With the bases now empty, Jason Bay hit a solo home run to make the score 3-0 sox.

That was all the offense that the Sox would need on the night as Jon Lester and Jonathan Papelbon were awesome. Lester pitched 7 2/3 innings to pick up the victory. Lester gave up six hits while walking three and striking out nine others. Good quality start for Lester! Papelbon pitched 1 1/3 innings to record the save which was his 36th of the season.

Great job for the sox and they will now hope to win on Tuesday to take the lead back in the division.

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The Boston Red Sox were hammered by the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday night by the score of 11-6. The Red Sox attempted to come back as they out-hit the Orioles 13-9 but the Orioles wern’t having anything to do with it and only allowed the sox to score a late run in the eighth inning.

Four out of five Red Sox pitchers gave up runs in the game. Starting pitcher Clay Buchholz only lasted 2 1/3 innings as he gave up three hits and five runs. David Aardsma gave up two runs, Javier Lopez was charged with three runs while Mike Timlin gave up one run. Bad outing by the Red Sox pitching staff.

Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bay, and Jed Lowrie all had rbi’s in the game for the Sox. It clearly wasn’t enough however as the pitching staff completely sucked it up.

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There isn’t a whole lot to blog about tonight because the Boston Red Sox were almost no hit by John Lackey and the Los Angeles Angels.  Lackey shut down the Red Sox for nine innings and he had plenty of offense to get the win in the game while only givine up one hit.  Dustin Pedroia came through with a single in the bottom of the ninth inning and then Kevin Youkilis hit a two run home run for the Red Sox two runs.

Clay Buchholz was the starting pitcher for the Sox and he took the loss after giving up six hits and six runs.  Five of those six runs were earned as well.  Craig Hansen recorded the final two outs of the seventh inning after Buchholz was taken out of the game.  Hideki Okajima pitched a scoreless eighth inning and then Jonathan Papelbon came in to pitch the ninth inning without giving up a run.

You have to give it to the Angels and Lackey for almost throwing the no-no, they had the Red Sox number tonight.

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The Boston Red Sox had to play extra innings on Wednesdsay but they were able to come away with the 6-3 victory in 13 innings and complete a three game sweep of the Seattle Mariners.  Mike Lowell had a two run single and Sean Casey added a rbi single in the 13th inning to provide the winning runs for the Red Sox.  It was awesome to see the Red Sox come back and win this game!

Lowell finished the game with two rbi while Casey, Coco Crisp, and Kevin Youklilis all had one rbi each.  There wasn’t a whole lot of offense for the Sox today but they did enougn to pull out the victory.

Jonathan Papelbon ended up getting the win and is now 4-3 on the season.  Craig Hansen pitched the bottom of the 13th inning to record his second save of the season.  Red Sox starting pitcher Clay Buchholz pitched 5 1/3 innings to get the no decision.  He allowed seven hits and three runs in the game.

The Yankees will now be coming into Boston for big series.  Hopefully the Red Sox swing the bats better then they did on Wednesday or else they will find themselves losing to the Yankees.

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The Boston Red Sox and two pitches combined to shutout the Seattle Mariners in a 4-0 victory Monday night out in Seattle.  The Red Sox and Mariners opened up a three game series and the Red Sox grabbed game one of the series with out much problems.  It was a big win for the Red Sox who remained 1.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays who also won on Monday night.

Red Sox starting pitcher Jon Lester pitched 7 1/3 innings to get the win and improve to 8-3 on the year.  Lester pitched good as he gave up eight hits but zero runs while striking out six Mariners.  One key for Lester was that he did not walk any batters.  Jonathan Papelbon tossed 1 2/3 innings to get the save which was his 29th of the season.

Jason Varitek got the Red Sox scoring started in the 5th inning when he hit a two run home run and Coco Crisp scored as well.  Jed Lowrie scored Kevin Youkilis and Crisp in the 8th inning on a two run single to left field.  That was enough runs the way Lester and Papelebon were throwing the ball.

The Red Sox need to keep on winning out in Seattle to stay close to the Rays.  I think they will sweep the Mariners actually.  What do you think?

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